Ena’s mother met Román as a young student at the music conservatory, where they studied together. He was extraordinarily talented but failed to thrive due to his laziness. She compares him to an “Eastern wizard” who “still has his snares and the art of her music”—she doesn’t want her daughter “to be caught by a man like that” (191). Andrea notes that as she speaks of Román, “the color of her eyes changes with the effort to control herself” (191).

Ena’s mother recalls how when Román was 17 and she was 16, he demanded that she cut off her beautiful blond braid and present it to him as a sacrifice. Ena’s mother was so in love with him that she complied. When she presented the braid to Román, he cruelly responded, “Woman, why did you do something so stupid? Why do you act like my dog?” (193). Ena’s mother loves Ena deeply and is terrified of Román’s power, especially since he refused to end his affair with Ena. For Andrea, this series of confessions feels more obscene than anything she has ever heard:

It embarrassed me to listen to her. I, who heard every day the most vulgar words in our language, and listened unperturbed to Gloria’s conversations filled with the most barbaric materialism—I blushed at that confession of Ena’s mother and began to feel uncomfortable.